As searchers and civilians walk the St. Simons Island beach, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flies overhead checking the water for a 16-year-old Brunswick boy who disappeared into the water about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND - A search by boat and helicopter was underway Sunday night for a 16-year-old boy who disappeared beneath the ocean near the south end of the island, officials said.

The Brunswick boy was one of three who had gone onto a sandbar off the end of 6th Street and got in trouble about 6:30 p.m. when they tried to return to the beach, said Capt. Jay Wiggins, director of Glynn County Emergency Management.

A kayaker who was in the area rescued two of the boys but did not see the other, Wiggins said.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was searching from the air while Georgia Department of Natural Resources rangers, the Coast Guard and Glynn-Brunswick Search and Recovery volunteers were searching in boats.

Wiggins said the search would end at darkness although the DNR would keep a boat on station until 11 p.m. and there would be all terrain vehicles on the beach all night as long as the tides allowed.

Wiggins declined to provide the name of the missing boy or the survivors, but a person said one of the survivors was the missing boy's cousin.

Nicole Wells said she saw the three boys from her second story porch overlooking the beach.

"I saw all three out there,'' she said.

Wells said people frequently go out onto the sandbar and then have a hard time getting back to shore when the tides comes in. She said she thought the three boys were in danger and shortly thereafter heard them calling for help.

"They were thrashing around out there,'' she said.

Wells said she ran to the beach and saw someone on a kayak bringing two of them out and that a neighbor across the street already had called 911.

The point at which the trio got in trouble is a block east of St. Simons Elementary School where officials planned to provide accommodations for the family.